The Bottom Line
Introduction, Pricing & Detailed Look
ASRock has sent us over their new Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC graphics card, a custom triple-fan cooled Radeon RX 5600 XT that enters the ever-expanding range of custom Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics cards. Does ASRock have what it takes to be the best? That's what we're going to find out here today.
After my initial article on AMD's troubled launch on the Radeon RX 5600 XT, I have since reviewed the MSI Radeon RX 5600 XT GAMING X and the SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 5600 XT PULSE OC. But now we have ASRock with their own take on the custom Navi-based Radeon RX 5600 XT and a triple-fan cooler to boot.
Note: You can update the BIOS on the ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC graphics card to increase the 6GB of GDDR6 up from its stock frequency of 12Gbps, to 14Gbps -- right here.
Detailed Tech Specs
- Boost Clock: up to 1750MHz
- Game Clock: 1670MHz
- Base Clock: 1530MHz
- GDDR6: 12Gbps (stock)
- GDDR6: 14Gbps (requires BIOS update)
Overview
ASRock has built an interesting 2.7-slot graphics card with its Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC, rocking a triple-fan cooler and not-so-long backplate that makes me wish ASRock went with a smaller card.
The PCB itself is actually quite short, while the heat sink array is absolutely gigantic in comparison.
The company is using some gorgeous RGB lighting at the top of the card, with ASRock bringing your eyes to the Phantom Gaming branding and PG symbol on the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC graphics card. I really love the style of these RGBs in my gaming rig.
The card will be silent during low loads, just like most major graphics cards these days.
We do love some tweaking here at TweakTown, with ASRock Tweak you can tweak your graphics card while reading TweakTown for the ultimate in tweaking.
Detailed Look
ASRock has quite the stylish card here with the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC graphics card, with its triple-fan cooler coming out in force.
From the back of the card, showing off the small backplate and super-huge heat sink -- and the third fan making an appearance here.
From the top of the card, we can see it's not quite a 3-slot card -- wiht the heat sink taking up the end of the card. You'll require just a single 8-pin PCIe power connector to get the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC graphics card up and running.
Once again from the bottom of the card.
The single 8-pin PCIe power connector up close.
ASRock provides 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI on the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC graphics card.
Test System Specs & Synthetic Benchmarks
GPU Test Rig Specs
Welcome to the latest revision of our GPU test bed, with our system being upgraded from the Intel Core i7-7700K to the Core i7-8700K. The CPU is cooled by the Corsair H115i PRO cooler, with the 8700K overclocked to 5GHz. We've stayed with GIGABYTE for our motherboard with their awesome Z370 AORUS Gaming 7.
We approached our friends at HyperX for a kit of their kick ass HyperX Predator DDR4-2933MHz RAM (HX429C15PB3AK4/32), with 2 x 8GB sticks for a total of 16GB DDR4-2933. The RAM stands out through every minute of our testing as it has beautiful RGB lights giving the system a slick look while benchmarking our lives away, while the Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 motherboard joins in with its own array of RGB lighting.
Anthony's Test System Specifications
- Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Gaming 7 (buy from Amazon)
- CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K @ 5GHz (buy from Amazon)
- Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO (buy from Amazon)
- Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) HyperX Predator DDR4-2933 (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: 1TB Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2 (buy from Amazon)
- SSD: 512GB Toshiba OCZ RD400 NVMe M.2 (buy from Amazon)
- Power Supply: InWin 1065W
- Case: InWin X-Frame
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (buy from Amazon)
Additional Images
3DMark Fire Strike - 1080p
3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.
3DMark Fire Strike - 1440p
3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.
3DMark Fire Strike - 4K
3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware.
3DMark TimeSpy
3DMark TimeSpy Extreme
Heaven - 1080p
Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing.
Heaven - 1440p
Heaven - 4K
Benchmarks - 1080p
1080p Benchmarks
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.
You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.
Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.
Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.
1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts
Shadow of War enjoys the additional memory bandwidth that the new upgraded GDDR6 spec receives, with the ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC leaping out ahead of the stock BIOS -- and beating out MSI's custom RX 5600 XT GAMING X graphics card. It also beats the Radeon RX Vega 56 at 1080p in Shadow of War.
Metro Exodus receives the same love from the new BIOS from ASRock, where it's just 2FPS off of the higher-end Radeon RX 5700 at 1080p. It's 1FPS faster than the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X -- and 3FPS faster than its stock BIOS at 1080p in Metro Exodus -- not bad at all.
Benchmarks - 1440p
1440p Benchmarks
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.
You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.
Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.
Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.
1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts
ASRock is neck and neck with MSI and the custom RX 5600 XT GAMING X in Shadow of War at 1440p, with the ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC pushing 70FPS average with the updated BIOS -- just 1FPS short of the RX 5600 XT GAMING X -- but 5FPS faster than the stock BIOS.
The ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC matches the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X in Metro Exodus at 1440p at 49FPS average, with a 2FPS increase above the stock BIOS.
You can play Shadow of the Tomb Raider beautifully on the ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC, which is pushing 77FPS average (once again, just 1FPS slower than the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X) -- and 3FPS faster with the upgraded BIOS and better-clocked GDDR6 memory.
Benchmarks - 4K
4K Benchmarks
Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing.
You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon.
Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS.
Far Cry New Dawn was developed by Ubisoft, and is powered the Dunia Engine, an engine that has been modified over the years for Far Cry and last used in Far Cry 5. Dunia Engine itself was a modified version of CRYENGINE, scaling incredibly well on all sorts of hardware.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now.
4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts
I wouldn't go out and buy a Radeon RX 5600 XT for 4K gaming, but that doesn't mean it isn't capable of great 4K gaming. Even in something as intensive as Shadow of War we're looking at 43FPS average, 1FPS under MSI's custom RX 5600 XT GAMING X -- and 4FPS faster than the stock BIOS.
Metro Exodus is another punishing game but the ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC handles it like a champion, equaling the 30FPS average that the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X is capable of.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider cranks along at 40FPS average, beating the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X by a single FPS, and is 2FPS faster than the stock BIOS. Far Cry New Dawn is enjoyable at 4K, with 46FPS average (and once again 1FPS slower than the MSI RX 5600 XT GAMING X) at 4K.
Temp, Power & Final Thoughts
Temperatures
ASRock blew me away with thermal performance on its new Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC, with the card sitting at 59C during hours of heavy benchmark loads. It's the second-coolest graphics card I've tested in the last few years, second only to the SAPPHIRE RX 5600 XT PULSE OC (with its new BIOS) which is 1C cooler.
Also remember, the card is completely silent when it's not under any load.
Power Consumption
The power consumption of all of the custom Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics cards are within 10W of each other, with my entire Intel Core i7-8700K test bed using 190W with the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC installed.
Final Thoughts
Note: I spent a considerable amount of time benchmarking the stock BIOS (with the GDDR6 clocked at 12Gbps) and the new BIOS (with the GDDR6 clocked up to 14Gbps). I've included both results in the charts, so you can see out-of-the-box performance and then how the card performs post-BIOS update. I'm only judging the card from the post-BIOS update.
ASRock has what seems to be my favorite Radeon RX 5600 XT yet, with great performance, incredible cooling chops, and a slick but not over-the-top style. The entire package from start to finish is nothing but class -- especially with the new BIOS installed.
The Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC costs around $310, which means it's $10 more than the dual-fan (Phantom Gaming D2) edition (which also has a smaller heat sink) and $20 more than the dual-fan Challenger D model. If you want to see those models reviewed, I can ask ASRock if they'll be kind enough to send them over for an ASRock Radeon RX 5600 XT showdown article.
At the end of the day, I absolutely recommend the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC.
ASRock quickly came onto the custom Radeon graphics card scene in the cryptocurrency mining boom, and has established itself very quickly as a champion in the arena. I'm actually quite excited about where ASRock is headed, and can't wait to see what they do with RDNA 2 / Navi 2X graphics cards later this year.
Kudos, ASRock!
Performance |
90% |
Quality |
95% |
Features |
90% |
Value |
90% |
Overall |
91% |
ASRock kills it with the Radeon RX 5600 XT Phantom Gaming D3 6G OC graphics card. Stellar performance for 1080p and 1440p gamers thanks to faster GDDR6 with a quick BIOS update.
What's in Anthony's PC?
- CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K
- MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE Z690 AERO-G
- RAM: Corsair 32GB DDR4-3200
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24GB
- SSD: Sabrent 4TB Rocket 4 Plus
- OS: Windows 11 Pro
- CASE: Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL
- PSU: ASUS ROG Strix 850W
- KEYBOARD: Logitech G915 Wireless
- MOUSE: Logitech G502X Wireless
- MONITOR: LG C3 48-inch OLED TV 4K 120Hz
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